Students that learn digital citizenship at school are more likely to practice it at home

the Civic Engagement Research Group at Mills College queried 967 juniors and seniors from 28 high schools in California about what [Joseph] Kahne calls “sort of a day-to-day skill set.” The students, who came from urban, rural, and suburban districts, were asked how often they were asked in class to assess the trustworthiness of information; how often they were required to use the internet to get information about political or social issues; how often they were required to find different points of view about those issues; and how often they were asked to create something and publish it on the web.

“We found that, when young people are required to do those things–when they’re part of the school assignments or the classroom content–the students became more likely to do those things during their discretionary time,” Kahne explains. “The kids who had been given assignments that required them to find different points of view online were more likely to be exposed to different points of view outside of school–which makes sense. If you teach someone how to do something well, or highlight the need to do it, they’re more likely to do it.”

One Response to “Students that learn digital citizenship at school are more likely to practice it at home”

What you’re talking about, essentially, is training kids to think critically. On the one hand, I’m happy hear this more and more in the public space. On the other, I know that the topic is emerging because high school and college graduates are too often proving unable to critically think.

If there is hope for critical thinking in America’s future, it’s in the Common Core Standards, which make much more stringent demands on student literacy.